Are reusable advent calendars worth the hassle?

[iloveholidays]

I've been debating whether to invest in large felt advent calendars this year for my 3 DDs however was chatting to a friend last year who said she had one for her DD but all she wanted was a chocolate one. I don't want to spend hours doing them if all my girls want are chocolate so I'm throwing it out there....

are they worth the effort?

I was planning to do a lot of activities but I could just put these in envelopes with numbers on so don't think it's worth buying a calendar just for that.

Thanks

Costco sell wooden ones every year. This year's one is very sweet - here.

They contain tiny wooden decorations that hang on the calendar itself. For DD I also put in a small chocolate (the teeny bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk) and something small like a Squinkie, finger puppet, bobble or hair clip. She loves it!

My DD's godmother made her one for her first Christmas. I put it up every year and put chocolate coins in it, saving the largest ones for the last few days.

No hassle and minimum cost each year.

fuzzpig you can buy a felt one on ebay or folksy/etsy. You do'nt need to know how to sew yourself

I got a strong card one from IKEA last year. I fill each day the night before, depending on what we're doing the next day.

Eg. Write a note with watch a Christmas film, and where the popcorn can be found.
Today you can start playing the Christmas CD in the car.
Make Christmas biscuits with Mum after school.
Go to visit Santa (that was a bit disastrous as I had d&v all night and forgot to swap the note )
Today you can get the Christmas tree out and decorate it.

Some days there were just a sweet each, but I tried to mix it up a bit. Will definitely be doing the same thing this year...makes the build up a bit more magical (for me mostly )

My children have now the reuseable calendar I had as a child. I like that it's being handed down.

We have two: a felt one and a wooden one with boxes. The DCs take it in turns to open them. They are 16 and 14!

We've had the felt one for 14 years.

I have a gorgeous advent calender that I got many years ago from QVC .
My DC are now 13.6 and 11 and this has been part of their Christmas Traditions all the years they can remember.
I cannot remember how much I paid for it.

There's a little resin , painted tree with tiny hooks that sits on a turning stand (plays tune)
There's a handpainted winter scene on the doors of the little cupboard containing 24 lift up doors. Each holds a small ornament (about 1" long) to hook on.
I put a couple of chocolate coins in each box and (new tradition) a shiney £1 coin for DS and DD on the Saturdays.

At the end of Advent we carefully put it all away.

Just for anybody thinking of buying a felt reusable one - there's a mumsnetter called coldcomfort who sells them, they look amazing! coldcomfortcrafts.wordpress.com/fabric-advent-calendars/

Ds has a felt one that we were given (by mil). I find it is a pain as pockets are on the small size and ds doesn't eat sweets or chocolate....

We have a wooden one and DS loves it.

He doesn't care that it doesn't have some cartoon thing on the front.

We put chocolates and very small novelties in it and even jokes saved from the last year's crackers.